Luke had the entire family in the bunker. The children were in the residence side while all the adults were in the conference center.
“We have a lot of information to cover, so let’s get started.” Luke stood at the front of the room with Phire, and Adam. “To put everyone’s mind at ease, Samantha is upstairs where she has established her role as the ruler of all. Cynthia is keeping a close eye on her to make sure she is okay. Also, Joshua is en route to us and will be here shortly. I want to make sure everyone is accounted for until this mission is complete.”
“Is Teddi with him?” Sally asked.
“Yes,” Roc answered. “They took her to Prince LeVere’s palace after Joshua warned them. “He picked her up on his way here.”
“I’m here.” Joshua appeared on the monitor behind Luke.
“Good of you to join us,” Adam nodded. “Have you landed?”
“In Genevieve, about five miles out.” Joshua replied. “Continue Luke.”
“Why are we all here, Son?” Joe asked.
Luke cleared his throat. “I’m going to explain everything. It would be easier if you hear us out then ask your questions.”
“Who are all of these people?” Ruby asked. “They are not family.”
“In a way they are,” Adam replied. “You will understand in a minute.
Luke cleared his throat, “They will be explained in a minute.”
“I need to know why my babies are here in an underground facility, on our property that I did not know anything about?” Diamond asked.
“Okay…everybody listen up. Give Luke a chance to tell you what you need to hear and all of your questions will be answered. In other words, be quiet and listen.” Phire looked at her mother. “I’m…just saying.”
LT chuckled as did Luke.
“Thank you, Phire.” Luke exhaled. “Look I know it is weird for us to be in this place when as a family we are used to being everywhere living our lives. What I need to tell you is about just that. Us being able to continue living our lives.” Luke explained. “While I was in college, the government approached me about my thesis on underground transportation systems. They hired me to make my thesis a reality. With the President’s permission I am allowed to give you a brief overview of what I do. Due to national security, I cannot give you details. The same situation is true for Adam and Phire.”
“Phire?” Sally gasped.
“It’s okay, I will explain later, Mom.” Phire exhaled then glanced at Luke.
“About two years ago I received a message indicating the family was in danger. I passed on the information received to Adam. He did some checking and found the threat viable. Together we determined adjustments needed to be made to all of our homes.”
“That’s why you were going in all our basements?” Pearl asked.
Luke closed his eyes and exhaled then continued. “My main goal was to ensure each of you had an exit point in your homes that did not include doors or windows. Once that was done, we thought we had you all covered well enough for you to stay in your homes. Six months later, we determined we were wrong. The man who provided the information also sent boxes of documents to me. There was a note inside that indicated if I was receiving the documents he was dead. For a while I tried to use my team to decipher the documents, but did not have any success. That was when Sasha came to work with me. Her experience with the United Nations was what we needed. After reviewing the documents she discovered two key elements, one, whoever wrote them was attempting to conceal the messages and two, the region we believed they came from was incorrect. She guided us to a small African country called Benin.”
Adam picked up from there. “That alone did not give us guidance until the situation occurred with Jade.”
“With me?” Jade frowned.
“Yes. During the situation with Jade, Jessie James discovered men watching her place. When everyone was in New York, we captured two of the men and were able to get a few leads from them. One was a name. When that name was mentioned to Sasha, she recognized it. A friend of mother’s was able to connect us to the Ambassador to Benin and he was able to give us more information. Once we all compared what we had, Luke came here to set up operations to locate and eliminate the threat.”
“But before we could do that, the enemy initiated their plan and took Samantha.” Phire added. “At first we thought they were trying to get any Lassiter but then Sasha found something else in the documents. References to the word hurricane.” Phire glanced at Samuel. “From there, we determined Samuel was the target of this plot.”
“Samuel?” Cynthia questioned.
Samuel stepped forward. “During the time I was with the SEALS, my operative name was Hurricane. But I am unclear what this has to do with me.”
“We will brief you privately,” Luke replied as his attention went back to the family. “While Samuel is the target, this enemy wants to eliminate the entire Lassiter family.”
“And we will not allow that to happen,” Secretary Davenport spoke from the back of the room.
“Family, meet Secretary of Homeland Security Royce Davenport.” Adam introduced. “With him is the man who trained me, Dr. Edward O’Sullivan. The others in the back go by one name only, Sly, and The Empress. They are the people who trained Joshua. They have come out of retirement to assist us in this operation. We consider them family.”
“Next to them, we also have Slay, Leo and Tank,” Luke added. “They are the family that has had my back for the last few years.”
“We are all here, to protect the family who has protected our country,” Secretary Davenport stated. “Because this is a personal matter, the U.S. government cannot officially intercede. It is imperative to avoid an international incident. However, the President has indicated I can use my resources as I see fit. When I reached out, a few of our best operatives volunteered for this operation.”
“As Secretary Davenport indicated, resources from the U.S. government are off limits. That includes financial resources as well,” Luke stated. “However, again we reached out and a number of our friends responded to our call. Timothy and Opal have received financing from several of them. I feel you should know just how much this family is loved. In addition to my funding, Denise, Brian’s son Elliott, Tucker Donovan, Al Day, Devin and Grant have each given 10 million dollars to finance this operation. In addition to that, James Brooks, Ty Pendleton, Prince LaVeré and Denise have offered the use of their private jets for transportation as needed. Because this operation is going to take most of us away, the family from Connecticut is here to watch over you. Jessie, Jessie James, Jake and Franklin will be here while we are away. For the next few days, we are going to ask all of you to stay in the bunker.”
“I can ensure the children do not miss their school work,” Diamond offered. “My only concern is do we have enough supplies if this goes longer than expected?”
“Yes,” Luke replied. “We have enough supplies to handle an army for months. I do not anticipate you all being here more than one or two days.”
“A small price to pay to keep our children safe,” Cynthia said from the doorway. “The few hours while Samantha was missing felt like a part of my heart was gone. Let’s be sensible here. They could have done anything to my child in that period of time.” Samuel pulled his wife into his arms.
“Give me 48 hours to execute the plan we have,” Luke asked. “Everyone will be back in their homes in time to prepare for Christmas. But for the first time in two years, it will be without a threat hanging over us.”
“We can play football without a dome,” Jessie James said from the back of the room.
“Yeah, that dome is what got you the win,” Jake added.
The room went up in an uproar.
“The dome did not have anything to do with it. We whipped your behinds and will do it again next year.” Jade declared.
Luke, Adam, and Phire gathered at the front of the room.
“Can we do this in 48 hours?” Phire asked.
“We have to,” Luke exhaled. “With the intel from the men we captured this morning and the updated information from Sasha, our only issue will be locating and elimination.”
“The mission must be clear and everyone on board with the final decision.” Adam added.
“Every person involved must be eliminated.” Luke stated. “There can be no second thoughts on that point.”
“Lassiters don’t make the same mistake twice.” Joshua said as he walked over. “I see the gang is all here.”
“Welcome home,” Luke smiled.
Roc stood and walked into her husband’s arms. “Thank you for keeping my heart safe.”
“Always.” He kissed her.
“You have a few friends in the back.” She pointed.
Looking around the room, Joshua was overwhelmed by the number of operatives in the room. They each volunteered to protect his family. Most of them he had never worked with, but their reputations preceded them. He walked back to them. “Sly, Ned, Empress, all of you are supposed to be in retirement.”
“So are you,” Ned smiled.
Joshua looked at Monique, Grayson and Roc. “Someone has targeted one of our own.”
“The only way that is possible is an infiltration of our database,” Ned stated.
“If they accessed the database, they have information on every one of us.” The Empress added.
“Yes, we are here to protect your family. In turn, we will be protecting our own.” Sly stated.
Joshua glanced around the room. “I have one rule.”
“Shoot and ask questions later.” Roc shouted.